adam serrano

CARSON, Calif. – One point in their next match against C.S. Cartaginés and the LA Galaxy are through to the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals.

By virtue of their 1-0 victory over Isidro Metapan on Wednesday, the Galaxy moved into first place in Group 8 with six points while second place Cartaginés has three points. Due to the scheduling, the Costa Ricans have just a single game remaining on the CCL docket—against LA. Thus, if LA is able to get at least a draw, they’ll book passage into the quarters.

As for what might we see from LA in a week’s time? Who knows.

“We’re taking this game by itself, so we’ll see what team that we send down there," said goalkeeper Brian Rowe. "I’m sure whoever is down there is going to be ready and we’re going to try and get three points on the road."

ARENA: “Three Points. That’s all that I’m concerned about tonight. We knew that we had to get three points.”

(On getting out the 4-3-3 formation…)

ARENA: For about five minutes, it was a 4-3-3 then it was a 4-4-2, but that’s fine. Jose and Jack were the strikers and Chandler and Courtois were wide.

(On starting reserve players…)

ARENA: “They did alright, they worked hard, but you could see their inexperience at times. Our passing in the last 20 minutes of the game wasn’t very good, and it did pick up once we had Juninho, Sarvas and Gyasi on the field. But we need to pass better and that would be a criticism of our team tonight. A positive is the three points and the clean sheet. We’ve played much better this year as a team and last game. And in this competition, it was about advantage and tonight, the most important aspect of this game was getting three points. That was accomplished. So we’re in good position to advance, we’ve still got to earn at least a point to advance, so we’ve got a lot of work ahead.”

(On the importance getting a result against Cartaginés and qualifying before the fourth game…)

ARENA: “I think that it is important.”

(On whether he was prepared to use Keane…)

ARENA: “Yes, we really could have played, but we’d rather have him fully rested for Saturday. He had a difficult couple of weeks with the internationals in Europe, the travel back, and the game against D.C. United. I just felt it was in his best interests, you know, if we could avoid using him. I wanted to do that.”

CARSON, Calif. – It wasn’t pretty, but the LA Galaxy got the job done on Wednesday with a 1-0 victory over Isidro Metapán.

Laurent Courtois scored the only goal in the sixth minute while Brian Rowe made four saves for the Galaxy, who relied on a reserve-laden lineup to defeat the Salvadorian club. Although LA controlled the early stages of the match, Metapan had numerous chances to equalize, but poor finishing and timely saves by Rowe kept them off the board.

The Galaxy return to CCL play next Wednesday against C.S. Cartaginés in Costa Rica. A victory or a draw at San Jose’s Estadio Nacional and LA will punch their ticket to the quarterfinals. LA will have to do so though without defender Kofi Opare, who is suspended due to yellow card accumulation.

CARSON, Calif. – LA Galaxy Academy players Malcolm Jones and Elijah Martin were among the 36 players called up by U.S. Under-18 National Team head coach Javier Perez for his week-long training camp at StubHub Center on Tuesday.

The camp will run from Sept. 22 to Sept. 29 with the U.S. team taking part in an intrasquad scrimmage on Sept. 25 and a pair of matches against local club teams on the penultimate day of the camp on Sept. 28. Jones has already made a pair of appearances for the Galaxy reserves while both players have prior experience with the U.S. youth set up.

The LA Galaxy Under-18’s start their U.S. Soccer Developmental Academy season with games against Seattle Sounders FC on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. and against the Portland Timbers on Sunday at 10:00 a.m.

CARSON, Calif. – LA Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena is still unaware of the severity of the injuries to A.J. DeLaGarza (elbow) and Landon Donovan (ankle), but he’s positive that he’ll have some idea soon.

When asked about the status of DeLaGarza, who was seen heading to the locker room and wearing a cast during at the conclusion of the portion of the team’s training session on the StubHub Center stadium field open to the media; Arena told reporters that they’re still unaware of the severity.

“I don’t think they quite know at this point,” said Arena. “[We’ll] see in the next couple of days as he gets moving a little bit more what that’s going to be like.”

Although Arena asserted that the team doesn’t know about the status of either player, he seemed positive when speaking about the severity of Donovan’s injury.

“He sprained his ankle,” said Arena. “Whatever the math is, I’m confident he’s going to be available very soon. You can interpret that any way you want.”

The 19-year-old has been primarily used in MLS Reserve League matches this season, but with DeLaGarza out with injury and Arena seeking rotation, he may be an option for Wednesday’s CONCACAF Champions League match against Isidro Metapán.

If Sorto is called upon to the game day roster or possibly start against the Salvadorian club, the teenager admits that he’ll need to rise to the occasion.

“It’s big pressure because all of the players in the first team are high quality players, but I've been improving during these last five months since the U-20 World Cup,” said Sorto. “I've been playing faster and I'm getting better at defending at one-on-ones, which is key to the [right back] position. I’m just going to concentrate on my game and not worry.”

CARSON, Calif. – The LA Galaxy struggled through a 2-2 draw to D.C. United on Saturday that saw them lose a pair of starters in A.J. DeLaGarza (elbow) and Landon Donovan (ankle) to injury, but during the first training session since the draw, head coach Bruce Arena stated that there was no update on their statuses.

When asked if there had been any news on the severity of either injury, Arena was consise as he said there were “no updates” yet on either player.